Gathering Up a Few Loose Ends

We’re coming down to the wire on 2018, but let me just squeeze in a post following up on some things I mentioned late last week.

First off, blogs participating in the inaugural mystery-fiction Reprint of the Year Award competition have finally named their winner: it’s Locked Room Murders, an unpretentious-looking book originally published back in 1979 and described on the Amazon sales site as “a bibliography containing a description of the problem and, separately, the solution to locked-room and impossible-crime novels and short stories.” Second place honors went to Bats in the Belfry, E.C.R. Lorac’s 1937 thriller. You’ll find the full results of this contest here.

Second, the UK blog Killing Times has concluded announcing its “top 20 crime dramas of the year.” Here are its five foremost picks:

1. American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace
(BBC Two)
2. Unforgotten (Series 3, ITV)
3. The Bridge (Series 4, BBC Two)
4. The Deuce (Series 2, Sky Atlantic)
5. Trust (BBC Two)

Killing Times’ rundown of its favorite TV presentations rolled out in four separate posts—20-16, 15-11, 10-6, and 5-1.

Finally, we have more bloggers late to the game of declaring their favorite crime, mystery, and thriller novels released over the last 12 months. Ayo Onatade’s choices, posted in Shotsmag Confidential, include Michael Connelly’s Dark Sacred Night, Laura Lippman’s Sunburn, and Mick Herron’s The Drop. Lesa Holstine applauds Lou Berney’s November Road, Laurie Loewensteins Death of a Rainmaker, and Brendan DuBois’ The Negotiator, among others. And L.J. Roberts adds her thumbs-up for such works as Allen Eskens’ The Shadows We Hide, Ann Cleeves’ Wild Fire, and G.M. Ford’s Soul Survivor.